Writers and literary biographies

Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Juana Inés Ramírez de Asbaje, 1648/1651-1695), Hieronymite nun, poet, and scholar of colonial New Spain; author of Primero sueño and Respuesta a Sor Filotea, called the Tenth Muse and Phoenix of Mexico.

Judita Vaičiūnaitė

Judita Vaičiūnaitė (1937–2001) was a Lithuanian poet and translator known as one of the first real city poets, with Vilnius at the center of her work.

Judith Herzberg

Judith Herzberg (Judith Frieda Lina Herzberg, born 1934 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch poet, playwright, and screenwriter, daughter of Abel Herzberg, who won the P.C. Hooftprijs in 1997 and the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren in 2018.

Judith Kerr

Judith Kerr, aka Anna Judith Helene Kerr, was a German-born British writer and illustrator (1923–2019), creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, the Mog series, and the exile trilogy Out of the Hitler Time.

Judith Krantz

Judith Krantz (Judith Bluma-Gittel Tarcher, 1928–2019), American novelist and former fashion editor; author of Scruples and Princess Daisy; 85 million copies in over 50 languages; pioneer of sex-and-shopping fiction.

Judith Viorst

Judith Viorst (born 1931) is an American author of the classic picture book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, the bestseller Necessary Losses, humorous verse, and books on aging.

Judith Wright

Judith Wright (1915–2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist, and Indigenous rights campaigner whose first collection, The Moving Image (1946), became a landmark of Australian literature.

Judy Blume

Judy Blume (born 1938, Elizabeth, New Jersey) is the American author of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever ..., and 29 books selling over 93 million copies; also known as one of the most frequently banned US authors.

Juhan Liiv

Juhan Liiv (1864–1913) was an Estonian poet and prose writer, regarded as the first important innovator of Estonian poetry, whose novella Vari is the first realistic Estonian novella.

Juhan Smuul

Juhan Smuul, born Johannes Schmuul (1922–1971), was an Estonian poet, prose writer, and playwright, the leading literary figure of Soviet Estonia and Writers' Union chairman from 1953.

Juhani Aho

Juhani Aho, born Johannes Brofeldt (1861–1921), was a Finnish author and journalist, a founder of modern Finnish prose whose realist breakthrough came with the 1884 novel Rautatie.

Jules Renard

Jules Renard, born Pierre-Jules Renard (1864–1910), was a French novelist, playwright, and diarist known for Poil de Carotte (1894) and his Journal, published after his death in 1910.

Jules Romains

Jules Romains, pen name of Louis Farigoule, was a French writer who founded Unanimism and wrote the play Knock and the 27-volume novel Les Hommes de bonne volonté.

Jules Supervielle

Jules Supervielle (1884–1960) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, novelist, playwright, and translator, born in Montevideo and counted among the major French poets of the twentieth century.

Jules Verne

Jules Verne (1828-1905), French novelist of Nantes and Amiens, author of the Voyages extraordinaires with publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and Around the World in Eighty Days.

Julia Cameron

Julia Cameron (born 1948) is the American author of The Artist's Way (1992), creator of the morning pages and artist dates practices, and a former Rolling Stone journalist and Scorsese collaborator.

Julia de Burgos

Julia de Burgos (1914–1953) was a Puerto Rican poet and activist known for feminism and themes of Puerto Rican independence, considered a foremother of Nuyorican poetry.

Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson, born 1948, is a British children's writer best known for The Gruffalo (1999), UK Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013, and made a Dame in 2026.

Júlia Lopes de Almeida

Júlia Lopes de Almeida, full name Júlia Valentim da Silveira Lopes de Almeida, was a Brazilian novelist, playwright, and journalist who published more than 40 books over 53 years.

Julia Quinn

Julia Quinn, pen name of Julie Pottinger (born Julie Cotler, 1970), American historical romance author of the Bridgerton series (The Duke and I, 2000), adapted by Netflix; Harvard art history graduate, Yale medical school dropout, RWA Hall of Fame member.

Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), American poet, abolitionist, and suffragist, wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1862), co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone, launched Mother's Peace Day, and was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Julian Barnes

Julian Patrick Barnes, English novelist and essayist born in Leicester in 1946; author of Flaubert's Parrot and the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner The Sense of an Ending; wrote crime fiction as Dan Kavanagh; final book Departure(s) (2026).

Julian Tuwim

Julian Tuwim (1894–1953) was a Polish poet, satirist, and translator from Łódź, co-founder of the interwar Skamander group and one of interwar Poland's most popular poets.

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1757 or 1758 – 1841) was a Polish poet, playwright, and political activist of the Enlightenment, secretary to Tadeusz Kościuszko in the 1794 uprising.

Julie Berry

Julie Berry (born 1974, Medina, New York) is an American YA and children's author of Lovely War (2020 Walden and Golden Kite winner, NYT bestseller) and Printz Honor book The Passion of Dolssa; she also owns the indie bookstore Author's Note.

Julie Murphy (author)

Julie Murphy (born 1985) is the American #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin', adapted into a Netflix film; she writes YA, middle grade, picture books, and adult romance, including the Christmas Notch series with Sierra Simone and Let Them Stare with Jonathan Van Ness.